Arizona Mesa Mission Address

Sunday, February 19, 2012

February 6, 2012

Dear Family,

I got a little sick over the past couple daysbut nothing too serious.

Unfortunately, Evangelina and her girls didn't get baptized because some issues came up unexpectedly that really took us all by surprise and I stillfeel like I don't know the gyst of the entire situation. I know in the past Evangelina and Gabriel had theirissues but those were due to Gabriel's lifestyle of drinking andpartying. It seems she is possibly resentful towards him still and can't accept that he has changed. Gabrial is very trusting withus and has expressed to me that he wants to save his marriage but Evangelina is currently being uncooperative. We referred him toPresident Tejada (our Branch President) and it didn't help at all.As a matter of fact it made things a little worse. Gabriel now doesn't want to be obligated to go to the Branch every Sunday becausehe feels like President isn't sensitive to his situation (I toldPresident Tejada beforehand to handle it with delicacy predictingthat something like this would happen). Thankfully he has a reallystrong testimony that the church is true, but unfortunately, he justrealized not all of its leaders are perfect. Gabriel alsotold me Evangelina lied to us about the Word of Wisdom becauseshe is still drinking coffee.

I love President Tejada, and we havea great relationship with him as the missionaries, but unfortunately it seems like heisn't sensitive enough to these kind of situations.

Other than that, our week went prettywell. We set four more baptismal dates and found a sweet, newinvestigator through one of our members (with whom we set a baptismaldate). So those were some really tender mercies the Lord prepared for us after the depressing situation with the Cervantesfamily. We will continue to work closely with them and see if we willbe able to help them out. Gabriel really, really trusts me and hasexpressed a lot of gratitude for the spiritual support Iprovided him through this difficult time. Please pray that theLord blesses me with the gift of discernment so I can know howbest to help him and his family.

Sister Zuniga got baptized two weeks ago and is doing really well. I only have 3 minutes left so Idon't have time to send you the photos. I am so happy that the Giantsrocked the patriots!!!